If Congress is going to ever get serious about revitalizing the economic reform effort that many of its most senior leaders started in the early 1990s, we should know in the next few months.

The government, after being wracked by scandals for the past year — from the Commonwealth Games to the 2G mobile spectrum fiasco — has had little time or legislative space to tackle stalled initiatives such as expanding permitted foreign investment in insurance and retail and ushering in banking reforms. Read More »

Most of the attention around the outcome of the assembly elections last week has been on the dramatic defeat of the Communists in West Bengal and the DMK in Tamil Nadu, and the compelling stories of the two political leaders behind it. The narrative on Kerala has centered on an unusually close verdict triggered by an incumbent Chief Minister who, at times, ran more in opposition to his own government and his party than the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

As the focus now shifts to governance though, the story of Kerala becomes significant, perhaps even more so than that of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. What is at stake in Kerala is the effectiveness of coalition governance in an era of fragmented electoral politics, and, of even more importance, the sustainability of the only real inclusive development model that has succeeded in post-independence India. Read More »

The southern state of Karnataka seems to be heading for political turmoil as the face-off between the governor and chief minister has escalated with a new attack and counterattack.

The war between the two intensified after Governor H.R. Bhardwaj submitted a report to the federal government Sunday recommending the dismissal of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government and the imposition of President’s Rule, which would give control of the state to New Delhi.

Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa dismissed this as an “undemocratic move” and said his government was stable. Read More »

Election results for the states including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were announced Friday. It was no ordinary Friday: It was Friday the 13th. But for the women who were voted into power yesterday, it was a lucky day. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress Party broke the long run of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who had been at the helm of the state for over three decades. Communist-led coalitions lost not just in West Bengal, but in Kerala as well. In Tamil Nadu, actress-turned-politician J. Jayalalitha’s AIADMK swept the DMK out of power, a party which has been the focus of corruption allegations.

India Real Time presents a selection of editorials, commentaries and opinions on the state elections from Indian newspapers.

Political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan, began his Saturday editorial in The Times of India with an apt phrase from the bible – “How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle/ O Jonathan thou wast slain in thine high places” – to comment on the loss of the CPI(M) and the DMK. Mr. Rangarajan wrote that the voters did more than just “unseat incumbent governments,” adding that the results will force the parties to “rethink the fundamentals of its ideology” and lead many others to “ponder the perils of putting kin and clan in charge of party.” Read More »

The issue of corruption has shut out the political fortune of the incumbent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and swept into power the state’s main opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party.

The AIADMK, led by ex-movie star J. Jayalalithaa recorded a landslide victory Friday, winning 150 seats in the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly; the DMK has won 23 seats and its ally the Congress Party, 5 seats, according to the Election Commission of India.

Political experts say Friday’s verdict indicates that the issue of corruption has emerged as the main influential factor in this election, and became the public’s main concern across the country. Read More »

Before she launched a highly-publicized campaign against the Tata Motors Nano factory in Singur, West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee received little coverage at the national level, and even less outside the country. But whenever she did crop up in the news, there was a certain quality that ran through all her public appearances.

In 1996, papers reported that Ms. Banerjee, who is known as Didi or big sister, had threatened to strangle herself with her shawl at a political rally in protest at a deal between her then-party, Congress, and the Communists.

The following year, she was briefly expelled from the lower house of Parliament for charging at a minister when she didn’t like his response to a question she had asked, the Business Standard reported. For good measure, she threw her shawl at the speaker upon being expelled. Read More »

While observers had widely anticipated the end of the nearly three-and-a-half decades of Communist rule in India’s state of West Bengal, there was nothing certain about the electoral outcome in Kerala, another red state.

Early projections of election results kept swinging between the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the ruling Left Democratic Front until the UDF scraped past the 70-seat mark it needed to secure a narrow majority in the state’s assembly.

Of the UDF’s 72 seats, Congress alone secured 38 and the Muslim League 20. The LDF, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), won 68 seats.

The victory of the Congress-led group over the Communist-led alliance in the southern state spells the end of communism in India–at least until the next elections. Read More »

All signs point to victory for the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alliance led by J. Jayalalithaa in the Tamil Nadu assembly polls, for which results were announced Friday. The incumbent chief minister K. Karunanidhi is expected to lose by a huge margin. Read More »

About India Real Time

India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.